This invention pertains to monk style shoes, particularly, dress shoes, golf shoes and other sports shoes, as well as other adapatable footwear.
Low-cut shoes presently made include types having a strap closure which utilizes a buckle to obtain tautness and to fasten the shoe on the wearer's foot. This type of closure has certain limitations in that the studs or latch of the buckle can be fastened only at predetermined holes in the strap thereby restricting the wearer from obtaining a precise custom-fit should only a minor variation in the position of the holes be required. Furthermore, strap closures using a buckle may be awkward for the user since both hands are required to hold the strap and to position the stud in the buckle in the desired strap holes each time the shoes are fastened.
In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,527 and No. 4,126,951 and co-pending application Ser. No. 890,487, I disclosed various closure assemblies for fastening shoes to maintain the desired tautness specifically across the instep. However, these closure assemblies rely on a D-ring or grommet attached on one side of the shoe, requireing the fastener strap, attached to the opposite side of the shoe, to extend across the instep to engage the D-ring or grommet and then to recross the instep to fasten the shoes with a hook and loop Velcro type fastening means. Further, the closure assemblies of U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,527 and 4,126,951 require attaching at least two straps to the shoe, one to form the anchor strap on one side of the shoe and another to form the fastener strap on the opposite side of the shoe.
The Shaw Pat. No. 3,845,769 is directed to a therapeutic boot "of essentially unyielding material shaped to fit a limb". The structure in Shaw relies on a plurality of bands with D-rings adjacent a split in the boot. The structure also requires the bands to cross and recross the split in the boot in order to fasten back upon themselves.